SAN DIEGO – One theme is running through this NCAA Tournament – respect. No one, it seems, is getting any. And for the most part, those crying about lack of respect are correct. Even No. 1 seed Stanford, which now appears destined to win the West next weekend in Anaheim, believes it has been shortchanged.

This tournament was wrongfully overloaded with teams from the BCS by the selection committee, leaving many deserving mid-majors out of the picture. It’s time that the Georgia Tech’s of the world stop getting invited to The Dance over deserving mid-majors.

Stanford guard Casey Jacobsen, who was torched by St. Joseph’s guard Marvin O’Connor for 37 points as Stanford snuck away with the 90-83 victory Saturday night, addressed the situation of mid-majors and teams from the West being dissed.

“Just because ESPN’s studios are in Connecticut, the West Coast doesn’t exist,” said Jacobsen, who scored 21 points to help Stanford advance to the Sweet 16 against the underrated Cincinnati Bearcats. “I like Digger (Phelps), I like Jay Bilas, and I like Dickie V. It just goes to show you that everybody feels that way and the tournament is proving that the mid-majors and the West Coast schools are just as good as some of the top teams.”

Jacobsen is right. There is an Eastern prejudice. Just check these amazing numbers. Consider that only 12 of the invited 65 teams from the tournament are in the Mountain or Western time zone. Yet five of those 12 teams, Stanford, Arizona, USC, UCLA and Gonzaga made it to the Sweet 16.

The bottom line for Stanford, though, is that for the first time in three seasons it got by a tremendous second-round opponent. St. Joseph’s gave Stanford everything it had but because of the play of the Collins twins upfront and Stanford’s near-perfect foul shooting, the Cardinal survived. For that, they are a much stronger team today than they were before the tournament started. St. Joe’s played a physical game against Stanford. Traditionally, West Coast teams are labeled soft. Stanford is not soft. Jacobsen said he was never grabbed as much in a game in his life as he was against St. Joe’s. “If we can learn from this game, we’ll be the better for it,” he said.

Stanford will play Cincinnati, another team that is underrated, while Maryland will take on Georgetown in the other end of the bracket. The Bearcats have much more size than St. Joseph’s and they have a talented backcourt in Kenny Satterfield and Steve Logan, but it is doubtful they will get the explosive firepower that O’Connor provided or the incredible floor leadership of the freshman Jameer Nelson.

All that, of course, plays into Cincinnati’s hands.

“We haven’t been getting any respect all year,” Satterfield said of the young team that has grown up together this season. “So we don’t expect to get any now.”

You can be sure Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins will have his team playing with passion. “I grew up a son of a coach,” he said. “I think everybody oughta bring passion to their job. People who don’t bring passion to their job should look for a new occupation.”